Arbitration Week 2 Recap

We’ve wrapped up the second week of hearings in our Public Hospital Doctors Award arbitration. Read on for a full recap and highlights from the Bench, plus how you can support your colleagues as we head into another important week.

How Members Can Show Support

Your colleagues and our witnesses have given hours of their time to the arbitration process - not to mention the uncomfortable and challenging experience of being cross-examined in court. Your visible support makes a big difference. Whether it’s showing up in the courtroom or backing them on social media, we would love to see as much of your support as possible!

Attend the Hearings in Person

A strong member presence in the courtroom is a powerful display of support. It shows our witnesses – and the Commission and NSW Health – that doctors are united behind Award reform.

There’s a new listing for Monday and we strongly encourage members to attend if they can.

Please note we haven’t received the livestream link yet, but once we do we will post in the WhatsApp chats.

Support on Social Media

Your social media messages of solidarity not only help boost morale for our witnesses but also highlight the dedication and pressures facing doctors in NSW right now.

You can share our daily updates, repost our tiles and stories, share messages of thanks to witnesses and anything else you can think of to show your support!

Make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Week 2: Highlights From the Bench

Monday Highlights

Monday’s witnesses set the tone for the week, outlining day-to-day realities and growing pressures. Even at this early stage of proceedings, the evidence is building a clear picture of why the Award changes we are seeking are necessary, fair, and grounded in work value.

Our main witness of the day, a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) Staff Specialist, gave compelling evidence about significant changes in her work requirements over the past decade. She explained that both the complexity and acuity of patients admitted to the PICU have increased substantially, alongside the overall number of patients.

Her testimony highlighted that sicker patients require more advanced technology and complex procedures. She also detailed major technological developments reshaping the workload, including ECMO, renal replacement therapy for children with kidney failure, and modern ventilation technologies. She noted that more medically complex chronic patients are staying in hospital for longer periods.

Finally, she explained that NSW’s comparatively lower pay compared to other states has had a significant impact on recruitment and retention of staff in PICU.

Tuesday Highlights

On Tuesday we heard from a highly specialised Paediatric Transplant Surgeon, one of only two in NSW. He performs up to 30 paediatric liver transplants and 15 kidney transplants each year, with operations often running 12–15 hours and followed by multiple re-operations.

He explained that only a handful of surgeons nationally can perform this level of complexity. Yet the current Award fails to recognise the heavy demands or the expectation of continuous availability. Over the past 17 years in NSW, there has not been a single day where a paediatric transplant surgeon was not available.

When asked whether increasing the special allowance could substitute for proper on-call and overtime arrangements, he stated clearly that a single broad payment would not reflect the reality or variability of the work and would simply reinforce structural problems that the Award review is intended to fix.

We also heard from a Senior Staff Specialist (Rheumatologist), who described increasingly demanding out-of-hours work and major shifts in rheumatology practice - including advances in imaging, stricter regulatory requirements, rising comorbidities and a growing autoimmune burden. All of this requires more complex decision-making and monitoring.

Wednesday Highlights

Wednesday's evidence focused on two witnesses from the Hunter New England Local Health District, highlighting structural workforce failures and the safety risks created by the current Award.

A Director of Medical Services described the severe and worsening pressures facing rural and remote hospitals, with many sustained almost entirely by VMOs and locums, and some having no onsite doctors at all.  He criticised this reliance on locum labour as evidence of failed workforce planning and a poor use of the NSW Health budget.

He explained that there is no effective mechanism to determine permanent staffing or FTE requirements, leaving services in a perpetual cycle of reactive recruitment. He also emphasised that the current Staff Specialists Award is not competitive with VMO contracts, particularly for rural clinicians who face additional out-of-pocket CPD costs.

A Staff Specialist Anaesthetist then gave evidence about a department reliant on out-of-Award arrangements, with staff leaving or reducing FTE to avoid after-hours work. Fatigue is severe on the cardiac anaesthesia roster, where consultants routinely finish late, remain on call overnight, may be recalled in the early hours and then return for a full list the next morning. Rising patient acuity and procedural complexity also intensify the workload, but the abnormal hours allowance does not reflect the role or burnout.

Thursday Highlights

On Thursday the Court heard from a Clinical Academic and Gastroenterologist who spoke to the unique position of his role, the precarity of current arrangements for Clinical Academics and trainees, and the ever-increasing intensity of doctors’ workload.

Our witness spoke to the precarity of being employed as a Clinical Academic without any coverage under an Award, with employment terms set by a Policy Directive that has changed several times since his appointment. ASMOF’s claim is for Clinical Academics to be covered under a Public Hospital Doctors (State) Award that would cover all salaried doctors working for NSW Health.

He also raised concerns about trainees he supervises, noting that year-to-year contracts leave them without job security and reluctant to raise critical safety issues. ASMOF’s draft Award proposes permanent employment as the default for doctors across NSW Health.

Once again, increasing clinical complexity was a dominant theme. He noted that his patients often have multiple illnesses, including high blood pressure, chronic lung disease, as well as bleeding ulcer or chronic liver disease. He spoke to the shift from broad spectrum immune suppressing drugs with severe side effects to complex biological agents which require specialised understanding and intensive monitoring.  

Upcoming Court Schedule

We will be back in court next Monday, 8 December - this is our only court appearance scheduled for next week. Proceedings then will resume in the week commencing 15 December, with appearances currently listed for 15, 16, 17 and 18 December.

There is still capacity for members to attend in person. If you wish to be present in the courtroom.

Reminder to our witnesses: You must not watch any of the hearings until after you have given evidence (this includes in person at the courtroom and via the online livestream).

You can find all information related to the arbitration including hearing links on our website: asmof.nsw.org./awardreform. We also encourage you to join your local Union WhatsApp Group and follow us on Instagram or Facebook to get the latest updates!

We’ll continue to provide members with regular updates on the proceedings and ensure you know exactly what is happening inside the Commission as the case progresses.

Thank you for your ongoing support as we embark on the next phase of our campaign.